GPS on a smart phone.

[MaDMaN_26]

OK my noob-ness to smart phones is rearing its head... I have the HTC Desire and it has GPS, at least all the functions are there but I don't seem to be able to get it to show me or track my movements correctly... A sort of friend said to me "Do you have maps?" and I had previously just thought they would come with the phone... but perhaps not. I'm possibly getting things confused as well as it has google locater as well.. and I'm not sure if they work in conjunction or not and I had kind of figured google maps would be the "maps"

Can anyone explain how this works? Is my unit just GPS capable until I purchase maps? If so does anyone have a good suggestion, and economical one for maps? what does google locater have to do with all this?

I have a garmin in my car, so this is not something I *need* per se but if I can use the feature without it costing me a fortune I want to... plus I'd like to understand it... once I wrap my head around the technology I'm sure I'll be thinking "duh! it's so easy" but right now its frustrating me.

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sorry if fata, can't search for three letter word "gps"

[TopChed]

I am not exactly sure what is available for your HTC, since I use an iPhone, but there should be (I would expect at least), a map application installed. If not, you might have to download one. For example, my phone has a google maps feature installed already, but I could download a mapquest app from the app store if I wanted.

These are simple applications that are good for finding your destinations, but in my experience, they aren't great to use as a GPS as you drive. The tracking dot on my map when I'm driving is often a bit behind where I really am, so I usually just use it to plan my route and put it away. I should also mention, using it like this will use your data plan, so it can be expensive to use if you're outside Canada.

There are applications for iPhone (and your Android phone I imagine) which would be much better for driving GPS systems (and wouldn't use data outside the country). These are usually pretty expensive on the iTunes store, for example the TomTom app for the US and Canada is $60.

So I'd imagine the best option is to find a free map application you can download, or perhaps already have on your phone. It probably won't replace your garmin for driving though. Hopefully that helped, I don't know much about the apps for an Android phone.

[Mad Mel]

MadMan, it definitely should work. I checked, the Desire has onboard GPS, and it should be as simple as opening Google Maps and your location will be displayed. Likewise, Google Navigator should work. It is an application that Google built that uses the Google Maps base, but implements it in a car-gps-navigator kind of way.

Google Latitude (what I think you're referring to by Locator) just sits on top of Google Maps, and permits your friends to see where you are and vice versa.

I have a HTC Desire Z running Android and use those apps, and they work without issue for me. So... on to trouble shooting.

Having maps isn't your problem; you're correct, Google Maps provides them for you. It will download the tiles you need when either using Google Maps or Google Navigator. Does Google Maps work at all? Like, can you open it and see a map?

Is the GPS turned on? Menu > Settings > Location > Use GPS Satellites tickbox.

Something to try is going to the Android Market and downloading Google Maps, in case yours isn't the up-to-date version. It will tell you if it is or not.

[Mad Mel]

These are simple applications that are good for finding your destinations, but in my experience, they aren't great to use as a GPS as you drive. The tracking dot on my map when I'm driving is often a bit behind where I really am, so I usually just use it to plan my route and put it away. I should also mention, using it like this will use your data plan, so it can be expensive to use if you're outside Canada.

I haven't had that latency issue using Google Navigator, but you're right, the data use could be an issue if you used it a lot. Navigator uses a perspective view and spoken directions like a car GPS, which is much easier for navigation than a direct overhead map view with no voice. However, I don't think Google has released it for the iPhone; I wonder if they might be using it as a small nudge for people to use Android.

[blankall]

You should be able to open google maps. Then hit the symbol at the top right that looks like a target. It should take you directly to your location.

You have to turn on GPS first though. It may prompt you to turn on GPS, if it isn't already on.

[Mad Mel]

Something that I just figured out that might be useful for any other Google Navigation users...

As you know, you can add Starred locations, like your home or office or mistresses' house, and then navigate to them (it doesn't matter if you add them on your phone or PC when logged into your google account, your phone will synch up). What's annoying is having the full address for those locations and no way to rename them to something useful like 'House of Ho'. Fear not, intrepid bitumen voyageurs, just go to Google Bookmarks (https://www.google.com/bookmarks/l), and you can rename them there.

[Jayems]

I have a samsung fascinate and the GPS sucks. never gets a lock, or when it does, it's like 15 minutes later and usually well past the time window that I needed it for anyways...

[MaDMaN_26]

MadMan, it definitely should work. I checked, the Desire has onboard GPS, and it should be as simple as opening Google Maps and your location will be displayed. Likewise, Google Navigator should work. It is an application that Google built that uses the Google Maps base, but implements it in a car-gps-navigator kind of way.

Google Latitude (what I think you're referring to by Locator) just sits on top of Google Maps, and permits your friends to see where you are and vice versa.

I have a HTC Desire Z running Android and use those apps, and they work without issue for me. So... on to trouble shooting.

Having maps isn't your problem; you're correct, Google Maps provides them for you. It will download the tiles you need when either using Google Maps or Google Navigator. Does Google Maps work at all? Like, can you open it and see a map?

Is the GPS turned on? Menu > Settings > Location > Use GPS Satellites tickbox.

Something to try is going to the Android Market and downloading Google Maps, in case yours isn't the up-to-date version. It will tell you if it is or not.


hmm ok well thanks for the info... I think there might be something wrong with my phone then... I play with it some more tomorrow and see.

[Mad Mel]

Definitely try blankall's suggestion - hitting that icon should snap the map to your location.

[blankall]

I use an HTC Desire as well. If it doesn't work like I suggested, you may have a faulty unit.

For me, it's always been pretty simple. On the rare occasion it shows my location off by a block or two. I'm guessing this is more a problem with the GPS than the phone itself though.

[Mad Mel]

For me, it's always been pretty simple. On the rare occasion it shows my location off by a block or two. I'm guessing this is more a problem with the GPS than the phone itself though.

One thing that can make a mess is the concrete canyon. If you're downtown in the tall buildings, the GPS signals will multipath like a beotch (bounce off the buildings) and the GPS gets a misguided notion of where it is.

The other thing it could be is if you aren't getting a GPS fix at all; GMaps will triangulate your position from cell towers, and that's a pretty rough-guess method.

[blankall]

One thing that can make a mess is the concrete canyon. If you're downtown in the tall buildings, the GPS signals will multipath like a beotch (bounce off the buildings) and the GPS gets a misguided notion of where it is.

The other thing it could be is if you aren't getting a GPS fix at all; GMaps will triangulate your position from cell towers, and that's a pretty rough-guess method.

Makes sense.

I'm sure some phones are worse than others, in the way some phones have better reception than others, but a lot thse problems are probably indemic to cell phone GPS, in general.

[Mad Mel]

Oh, definitely. Realistically, a GPS is a nice to have convenience item in a phone, it's not like they're putting survey grade equipment in there.

[MaDMaN_26]

Well to be fair to the phone units my Garmin GPS gets confused downtown as well... it has real troubles figuring out which direction I'm heading and sometime thinks I turning when I'm not etc...

So back the original topic, I went out this morning determined to figure this thing out. So I think the issue I was having is my phone came pre-loaded with google GPS, which has 4 different icons in the app section named: Places, Maps, Latitude and Navigation. These worked fine for me today when I used them. What was confusing me was the phone also came with a program named: Car Panel, powered by route 66 - which has a huge Widget that took up an entire home screen and was there from day 1 of turning on the phone. I kept trying to use this via the home screen widget and it usually took me to a map location in China somewhere by default... sometimes I could get it to find me but I hadn't figured out how I think it was downloading the map so depending on if I had data on or wireless available it would work or not work.... even if it did find me though Navigation and other GPS features are all extra money and subscription based. Although I did figure out how to download the Canadian map for it today for free... i think part of the deal of it being on the phone... so I'm not sure if that includes navigation once its downloaded - its half a gig of data so its still downloading... If it doesn't I'll probably remove the program and stick with google.

I knew once I figured it out I'd have a "ah-ha" moment followed by "duh"...

None of the applications are labelled great and I just thought they all belonged to one program.